For small businesses, making every marketing dollar count is essential, and advertising on Facebook and Instagram can be a cost-effective way to boost brand awareness, drive traffic, and increase sales. However, if you’re new to paid social media advertising, it can feel overwhelming without a clear strategy. At Threesides, our Meta specialist, Brandon, works closely with businesses managing their paid social advertising, so we asked him to put together a practical guide this month to help others understand the best way to get started with Facebook and Instagram campaigns.
Why advertise on Facebook and Instagram?
Facebook and Instagram remain two of the most popular social media platforms in Australia, with millions of users logging in daily, but aside from popularity, if I had to narrow down the benefits of paid advertising on these platforms, I think my top 5 would be that Meta ads allow you to:
- Reach highly targeted audiences based on location, interests, behaviours and demographics.
- Control your budget and scale campaigns up or down as needed.
- Boost brand awareness and stay top of mind with potential customers.
- Drive traffic to your website, online store or landing pages.
- Measure results clearly with detailed reporting and analytics.
How to get started: the absolute essentials
Before diving into your first campaign, here are the basics you need to have or work into your marketing plan:
- A Facebook Business Page and connected Instagram account.
- A Business Manager account to manage ads, pages and billing in one place.
- Clear goals – for example, are you looking for more website visits, leads, or sales?
- Strong visuals – high-quality images or videos that reflect your brand.
- Defined audience – knowing who you want to reach makes targeting much easier.
Setting clear goals is crucial. Think about what success looks like for you — is it more leads, increased website traffic, higher online sales, or greater brand recognition? A clear goal will shape your ad creative, targeting and measurement.
One of the smartest ways to strengthen your campaigns is by using first-party data. This includes data you collect directly from your customers — like email lists, website visitors (using the Facebook Pixel), and customer purchase history. First-party data allows you to create highly relevant Custom Audiences, improving the performance and efficiency of your ads.
Key steps when creating your first paid Facebook and Instagram campaign
- Choose your objective: Facebook and Instagram will guide you to select a goal: Awareness, Consideration, or Conversion.
- Define your audience: Target by location, age, gender, interests, behaviours or even upload your existing customer lists.
- Set your budget and schedule: You can start with as little as $5 per day. Choose daily or lifetime budgets and set a start and end date.
- Build your ad: Pick a format: single image, carousel, video or collection and write engaging copy that highlights your offer and includes a clear call-to-action.
- Launch and monitor: Once live, don’t sit and forget, you need to be checking in regularly to monitor performance and make tweaks if needed.
From my experience, I think the best tips are…
- Start simple: One or two ads targeted to a specific audience will give you a good foundation to learn from.
- Test and learn: Try different images, headlines, and audiences to see what works best.
- Keep mobile in mind: Most users access Facebook and Instagram via mobile phones – make sure your visuals and text are mobile-friendly.
- Use retargeting: Retarget people who visited your website but did not convert. It often costs less and delivers better results.
- Track results: Use Meta’s built-in reporting tools to track clicks, leads and sales. Optimise campaigns based on real data.
But the no 1. most important tip is knowing what motivates your customers! This is critical when defining your audience strategy. Using first-party data in your analytics can supercharge your insights. By tracking what your known customers do after seeing your ads, you can better understand the true value of your campaigns and refine your strategies over time. Using other tools you already have access to, to know (not guess) what drives them to convert is also key including:
- Website analytics – See what pages are converting, and what content users engage with most.
- Google Analytics 4 – Identify traffic sources and conversion pathways.
- Customer reviews and surveys for your business and competitors – Surface recurring pain points or value drivers.
- Organic search queries – Understand what language people use to find your products or services.
This data helps you develop audience segments based on real behaviour, not assumptions. This is a strategy we have used for our friends at Wonderschool. By combing through Wonderschool’s and their competitors’ reviews, and using their website’s user-behaviour data to find pain points amongst the market and the aspects that appeal the most to parents, we have developed ads that appeal to what parents want most, and we know that Wonderschool delivers in the services. This also means that when the audience looks at Wonderschool reviews, they will find reviews backing up these claims, building their trust in the brand.
The more technical side of Meta Ads that you should know
Meta provides powerful tools that allow you to show ads to people who are most likely to take specific actions, like purchasing, signing up, or visiting your store, within your chosen location. But to unlock this potential, a few key technical elements need to be in place.
Here’s what you need to set up:
- Meta Pixel – This small piece of code is added to your website and tracks user actions like purchases, sign-ups, and page visits. It helps Meta understand how users interact with your site after clicking on an ad.
- Conversions API (CAPI) – Works alongside the Pixel by sending data directly from your server to Meta. This is especially important since browser tracking (like on iOS devices) has become more limited. CAPI ensures more accurate conversion tracking and better attribution.
- CRM Integration – If you’re using a CRM like HubSpot or Salesforce, integrating it with Meta ads allows for deeper insights into the customer journey, from ad engagement to final conversion. It also improves audience targeting and campaign performance.
We’ve implemented the Conversions API across many of our clients’ accounts and have seen excellent results. When Meta has access to high-quality data, it can more effectively find and serve ads to people most likely to convert, meaning your budget works harder and smarter.
Common mistakes I see (and how you can avoid them)
- Poor targeting: So often we hear “but I want to target everyone” but reaching the wrong people wastes your budget. Be clear and define your audience carefully.
- Low-quality visuals: Blurry or irrelevant images will not stop people scrolling.
- Setting and forgetting: Monitor your campaigns regularly. Small tweaks can dramatically improve results.
- Ignoring the customer journey: Build ads for different stages of the buying cycle – from brand awareness through to purchase.
Need help navigating paid socials?
The team at Threesides is here to assist you. We can help with account setup, ads strategy, creative development, campaign management and reporting to help you get the best return on your advertising investment.
Read more about what advertising services we offer here or reach out to us for a chat.